| Bugs and Daffy's Carnival of the Animals | |
|---|---|
 VHS cover | |
| Written by | Chuck Jones Ogden Nash |
| Directed by | Chuck Jones |
| Starring | Mel Blanc Michael Tilson Thomas |
| Music by | Camille Saint-Saëns |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Production | |
| Producer | Chuck Jones |
| Running time | 23 minutes |
| Production company | Chuck Jones Enterprises |
| Original release | |
| Network | CBS |
| Release | November 22, 1976 (1976-11-22) |
Bugs and Daffy's Carnival of the Animals (originally aired on TV asCarnival of the Animals) is a 1976 live action/animated television special featuring theLooney Tunes charactersBugs Bunny andDaffy Duck and directed byChuck Jones.[1]
The special, based onCamille Saint-Saëns' musical suiteThe Carnival of the Animals and consisting of entirely new animation, was purposely cast in the successful mold of Jones' own earlier musical cartoons (includingRabbit of Seville,Long-Haired Hare andBaton Bunny), and set the familiar showbiz rivalry between Bugs and Daffy against theorchestral backdrop of conductorMichael Tilson Thomas, in a performance based on Saint-Saëns' music andOgden Nash's poetry.[2]
Carnival of the Animals originally aired onCBS on November 22, 1976,[3] and was the firstWarner Bros.-commissioned work featuring Bugs Bunny following the release of the cartoonFalse Hare, as well as their firstLooney Tunes production following the second closure oftheir original animation studio on October 10, 1969.
This is an abridged version of the work, omitting the "Tortoise", "Characters with Long Ears", "Cuckoo" and "Swan" movements and using the "Pianists" music over the ending credits.
Prime-time television would seem to be the natural place for the adult humor ofWarner's classic cartoons, as was exemplified by the success ofThe Bugs Bunny Show that aired Tuesday evenings onABC in the early 1960s. However, in the mid-1960s, the Warner Bros. cartoons had become established as kiddie entertainment. By 1968, executives atCBS were convinced that all animated material, no matter what its original intended audience had been, belonged exclusively on Saturday mornings. However, the popular characters ofLooney Tunes andMerrie Melodies intentionally had enduring adult appeal from the first, and with the success of other prime-time television specials such as the variousPeanuts specials that were being produced at the time, network programmers were finally convinced to give the Warner Bros. animated characters another chance in prime time.
According to animation historians Kevin McCorry and Jon Cooke:
Cartoon characters, appearing in holiday-related, half-hour features, could be relied upon to garner respectable ratings and advertising revenue. Further, with the reduction of regular series episodes per season to below 26, specials were needed to fill the gaps in the 52 weeks that constituted a television season.[4]
This special marked the first time since Warner Bros. had closed their studios in 1964 that Bugs Bunny had appeared on-screen with new material. (Bugs, unlike most of the other regularLooney Tunes characters, had not appeared in any of the outsourced productions distributed under the Warner Bros. banner from 1964 to 1969.)
Bugs and Daffy's Carnival of the Animals was released onVHS, and later on theLooney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 5 DVD along withBugs Bunny's Bustin' Out All Over andBugs Bunny's Looney Christmas Tales.[6]
